Update: Farewell to Operation Helmetliner

After we profiled Operation Helmetliner in February (“Enlisting All Knitters: Help keep a soldier warm in Afghanistan”), many of our readers stepped up to help. Last week, Citizen S.A.M. — which runs Operation Helmetliner — announced that it is ending its program. Why? The U.S. military is now issuing its own helmet liners.

The Citizen S.A.M. newsletter explains:

As we gear up for Operation Santa, we say goodbye to a wonderful program, Operation Helmetliner. …

[The military] will no longer be allowed to accept the liners you have so lovingly made. 

If anyone has any completed liners ready to send to us, please do so quickly. [Citizen S.A.M.] will be allowed to ship completed liners until November 1st. These will be distributed by the military as goodwill gestures from the soldiers to the local population. …  After November 1st, we can no longer ship them.

Thank you all for your awesome support of this very wonderful project over the past 5 years. Please use your skills and talents, care and love in other ways to support our troops.

For more information, visit citizensam.org. And keep checking back with us at TheStrengthBehindtheStrong.com, where we will bring you more ways to support our troops.

Additional information as of August 17, 2010: Citizen S.A.M. will continue to accept handmade wool scarves. It is the helmet liners, neck gaiters, and stocking caps that it will no longer be allowed to ship to our troops after November 1, 2010.